EDMONTON - While Jaromir Jagr rolls along — hockey is his life, he has no family concerns and they may have to cut the skates off him — this might be it for fellow 42-year-old Ray Whitney, the only pick from the Eric Lindros’s 1991 NHL draft year still playing.

Jagr, who seems oblivious to what it says on his birth certificate, has signed on to play another year for New Jersey after leading the Devils with 67 points this season.

Is that a good or bad thing when a 40-something player carries the mail offensively?

Whitney, meanwhile, may have seen his last NHL action in Game 5 of the Dallas-Anaheim series. The Wizard, who has played 1,330 regular-season games and another 105 in the playoffs, was a healthy scratch for the Stars in their last playoff game, with Erik Cole drawing back in after being a spectator.

Whitney, who turns 42 on Thursday, scored 32 points in 69 games and was marginalized as the season wore on. He became a special-teams guy, not much five-on-five.

He wasn’t happy. He still feels he’s got some gas left in his tank, but it won’t be in Dallas. He might get another chance in Phoenix, where he was offered a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent in 2012, but for less money than the $4.5 million per year Dallas paid him.

“I’ll be 42 years old and there won’t be a lot of people banging down the doors,” he said.

If it’s not the right location, like a Western Conference team — his family plans on staying in the desert this winter, Whitney might retire. He’ll be in management someday, if he wants to dive it into as Todd Marchant has done in Anaheim, Calif., where he’s head of player development for the Ducks.

“It was not a great year ... I’m not sure there are a whole lot of options out there,” Whitney admitted. “The legs are still there, but it’s nearly impossible to get the legs moving when you’re over 40 and playing eight to 10 minutes and only on the power play.

“After the first 10 games, I was on the second line, but the last three or four months, it was the fourth. They went with youth and they do have some good kids. I can’t deny that.”

Whitney leaves the Stars with 61 points in 101 games.

He laughed when asked if he’d keep playing as long as Jagr.

“Nobody’s keeping up to him,” said Whitney. “He’s not married, no kids and he’s still going to the rink at all hours of the day.

“I’m at the point where I’m barely showing up for practices,” he said jokingly.

“Phoenix could be the easiest solution, but I don’t know what their plans are. My daughter’s in Grade 7 now and it’s time to get her settled, get the family all set. Moving around is all done for them.”

The Stars will be looking at players half his age next season. They have a scorer (Brett Ritchie) in Texas and the American Hockey League’s rookie of the year, Curtis McKenzie, to hopefully work into the lineup next season, along with two other youngsters, Radek Faksa and Matej Stransky.

Whitney doesn’t want to be a hired gun, if it means going to the Eastern Conference while his family is in Phoenix. He’s played for eight NHL teams since 1992 and has 1,064 regular-season points. A whopping 931 of those points have come since the Edmonton Oilers put him on waivers after only nine games in 1997, when he won a job as a walk-on at training camp before they said he was too small.

He started an odyssey which took him from Florida to Columbus to Detroit to Carolina to Phoenix to Dallas. He was drafted 23rd overall by the San Jose Sharks in 1991, when Lindros wouldn’t come down from the seats to the Quebec table after the Nordiques chose him No. 1 overall, prompting the massive trade with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Whitney’s Spokane Chiefs junior linemate, Pat Falloon, was picked second overall, also by the Sharks. He played 755 fewer games because he didn’t have Whitney’s drive and discipline.

If Whitney doesn’t get any offers from other teams when the free-agent doors swing open July 1, he’d certainly consider moving upstairs.

“Management as opposed to coaching, that’s what I’d prefer. I have talked to other people about what they do (after playing). People have said you should take a year off and kind of recharge, but I’m not sure if I’d need that much time. I’d go batty,” he said.

Teemu Selanne, who turns 44 in June and was picked in the 1988 draft, is definitely riding off into the sunset after the playoffs are over for the Ducks.

New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur, who turns 42 on Tuesday, doesn’t know where he stands with the Devils. He sounds like he’d like to play another year somewhere.

Jagr, for sure, is coming back. He and Brodeur are the only players left from the 1990 draft.

Jagr’s new deal ($3.5 million salary, $2 million in games played bonuses), pushes his career earnings to $117,803,666, most of any player.

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